Patients face disruption as staff walk out at Doncaster hospital

Published:10:29Saturday 11 October 2014

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Patients at Doncaster Royal Infirmary could see their treatments disrupted next week as staff walk out on strike.

Staff at the trust which runs the hospital, along with Mexborough Montagu Hospital, will begin a programme of industrial action with a four-hour strike at 7am on Monday. Members of the GMB, Unite and Unison trade unions will be taking part. That will be followed by work-to-rule action, beginning on Monday and ending on Friday, when health staff will work only their contracted hours and take the full allotted time for their breaks.

Yorkshire senior organiser for the GMB, Neil Derrick: “Staff feel undermined and undervalued by the fact the Government has frozen pay for most NHS workers. They get an incremental rise, depending on their job, but due to the rising cost of living it is cancelled out.”

Mike Pinkerton, chief executive for the Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said patients are the Trust’s priority and plans are in place to ensure disruption is minimised so they can continue to provide safe and effective services to patients.

He said: “Any patients whose treatment will be deferred due to the action will be contacted and made aware of alternative arrangements.”

The strike action was initially planned as part of a co-ordinated day of action across the public sector in the borough, which was also to include staff from schools and local government workers.

But the schools and local government staff, who are members of the Unite, Unison and GMB unions, have decided against striking for now.